Special Weeping Window poppy will soon be on display at County Hall

An original ceramic poppy from the Weeping Window art installation that was commissioned to mark the centenary of the outbreak of war will be on display at County Hall in Morpeth next week.

The iconic hand-made poppy was recently presented to Woodhorn Charitable Trust to commemorate the sculpture’s visit to Woodhorn Museum in 2015.

The Weeping Window poppy piece at Woodhorn in 2015. Picture by Simon Williams.

It has been lent to Northumberland County Council and it will be on display in a glass case in the foyer area from Monday to Friday, November 10, during office hours.

Weeping Window, by artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper, was one of the key dramatic sculptures in the installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London in the autumn of 2014.

The poignant sculptures marked the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War and put into striking perspective the colossal scale of the loss of military life during the conflict.

Woodhorn Museum, one of the charitable trust’s four museums, was the first venue outside London to present Weeping Window.

The county council’s civic head, Anthony Murray, said: “Woodhorn Museum’s ceramic poppy installation was spectacular and deeply moving and brought tens of thousands of visitors to the region.

“The poppies have become symbolic of the blood shed by those who died in the First World War.

“In the run up to Remembrance Day, the display of this individual poppy, and all that it symbolises, will allow us a timely reminder of the cost of war, the value of lives lost and what that means to us now.